UK alternative rock outfit, Two Year Break is hitting the road for their first tour. We had a quick conversation with the guys on what they are anticipating while talking about band life and the creative process.
YOU HAVE YOUR FIRST TOUR COMING UP. HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT AND HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO TAKE WITH ON THE ADVENTURE?
Apart from making sure we are well-rehearsed, which of course is a MUST… we book all these shows ourselves, so we’re liaising with the venues, support acts, video guy, driver, and ourselves getting all the timings sorted.. hotels.. parking.. etc. To do with the live show we’re coming up with ideas to make it more exciting and get the crowd involved as much as possible.
It was a no-brainer to bring Royals along with us, they’re good friends of ours and their music is awesome. We ALWAYS bring bands with us whose music inspires us, we have that choice of being a completely DIY band and we love it.
HOW HAS THE SOUND AND WRITING PROCESS CHANGED SINCE “CHANGE MY MIND” (2018)?
Quite a lot! Back in the days of Change My Mind & the Sell Me Fate EP we used to meet up at the studio and jam. Sometimes this process could be quite unproductive though. We definitely found it was better to come with a bit of a foundation and let everyone build from there. That’s why the new (COVID induced) process of writing over zoom really helped. Someone would come up with an idea and we would all work off of one person’s computer, chipping in where we wanted until a song started to form! This is probably the main way we’ll continue in the future, we like it!
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING THING WHEN WRITING A BANGER?
The most difficult thing about writing a banger is that you can’t plan it. The most amazing thing about songwriting is when you pick your instrument or laptop… you have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, where your brain is going to take you. As someone who is passionate about making the catchiest chorus you’ve ever heard, what makes it difficult is that it’s hard to know if you could do it some way better. So the best thing to do is once you’ve got something you love, live with it and stick with it, and don’t sweat about trying to make it better. There is such a thing as trying to add too much to an idea, the simplest ideas are always best.
The only way you should change it for something better is if you naturally come up with a completely new idea. But in all honesty, you never really know if a banger is a banger until the fans tell you! That’s the truth of it.
WHEN WRITING A COLLAB TRACK LIKE ‘DOUBLE LIFE’ WHAT IS THE PROCESS LIKE? HOW DO YOU BALANCE CREATIVE FREEDOM AND COMPROMISE?
Writing ‘Double Life’ with Royals was such a positive experience. What was great is both bands knew their craft well, and will only want to do what was best for the song, no one was precious which made writing the song a lot easier. So when it comes to compromising it came down to “is this best for the song”. For example, Luke (lead singer of Royals) has a higher range than me (Brad lead singer of Two Year Break) so it made sense to let Luke go all in and hit those high melodies, instead of me saying “I want to do that but let’s change the melody so I can do it”.
On top of all that, Luke is a music producer and amazing songwriter so we were able to go to Luke’s studio and record it all professionally as we come up with the ideas. The only issue I had was Luke’s sofa bed, Luke mate, ya need an upgrade.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG TO PERFORM LIVE AND WHY?
I think for most of us the favorite is “Shave ‘Em On That” because it is just crazy! It really gets the crowd going as well which is a massive part of how much we enjoy ourselves on stage! Oh sorry, I mean our songs are like our babies and we love them all equally and could never choose…
SOME OF YOU WERE AT SCHOOL TOGETHER. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WORST PART OF BEING IN A BAND WITH YOUR OLD SCHOOLMATES?
Yeah, that’s right! Charlie and George went to school together and have been friends for a long time. Brad also went to the same school but was a couple of years younger.. so it wasn’t until after we left school that we all really started becoming better friends. We bonded over a love of music, and going to Comicon in London! Dan did not attend the same school (I can only assume he thought himself too good for us) but Charlie and George have been friends with Dan for 13/14 years so Brad was actually the latecomer to the friendship group & band!
So the best and worst parts… best parts are definitely knowing each other so long we’d like to think we’re all in sync and tight musically! The worst part is we all know how to push each other’s buttons to wind each other up haha!
WHAT IS THE MOST USELESS TALENT EACH OF YOU HAS?
Dan’s is playing the bass obviously. Brad can solve a Rubix cube in under a minute (on a good day). Charlie can snore louder than a chainsaw. George can genuinely make himself look pregnant.
WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE ANOTHER MUSICIAN HAS EVER GIVEN YOU?
It’s something I always hear from musicians and everyone in the industry.. and have experienced it with almost everyone we’ve ever worked with. Whatever you do, just make sure to be nice to everyone involved. Thank everybody involved as you go, buy the sound guy a drink, whatever you wanna do! People remember these things – we know we do. If there’s anyone particularly nice/kind to everyone that we work with, we’re always thinking “right, we’ve gotta have them here again”.
WHAT CAN THE FANS LOOK FORWARD TO ON THIS UPCOMING TOUR?
LOTS OF ENERGY, seeing the Royals & TYB collab song live, Cardboard Charlie Simpson, probably crying (Charlie gets emotional on stage), new merchandise, & of course meeting us meeting every single person after every single show! We absolutely cannot wait.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD OR PLUG?
At the time of writing this, some of the tour dates are pretty much sold out (we’re looking at you Bristol) so if you haven’t got your tickets yet MAKE SURE to grab them now!
We’ve also just released that collab tune “Double Life” with Royals, so make sure to go and check that out. And there’s a T-Shirt to go along with it!
All our merch is at shop.twoyearbreak.com Of course, all of the apparel is done by Pins & Knuckles so you know it’s good, everything you order helps us get one step closer to making more tunes! Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram